Useful Links

'Tall' Paul Newman practically grew up in Turnmills, the legendary nightclub in Farringdon famed for swinger parties in the '80s, a mind frying laser, an unfortunate shooting in the '90s and some of the best club nights the UK has ever seen. The club was the first to obtain a 24 hour dance licence in the UK, spawning the move to all night clubbing in the 1990s. It was the home to Trade, the wildest after hours London's ever seen, which started at 4am and kicked out at lunchtime Sunday. Paul started to play in the Turnmills thanks to his father, who bought this club in 1985 and soon showed everybody what he was able to do with 2 vinyls in the after-sessions. Since then, he hasn't stopped: a residency in Zap, London's Gardening Club... and many other. In fact, by now he has played in the main locations of USA, Canada, Australia, Brasil or Ibiza.
In the studio Paul published his very first album in '92, a white label called 'Love Rush', which has re-edited one year later by then happening label Hooj Choons. With Red Jerry, foundator of the label, he created 'Rock Da House'.
As a producer, he worked on Camisra's 'Let Me Show You' and became a bit of a remix icon: Duran Duran, Nalin & Kane, Bizarre Inc, Dina Carroll, New Order, Erasure, Keane, The Killers, K-Klass, East 17 and Blondie were only a few names. As it was a natural evoltion, he started his own label - Duty Free - which, amongst many others publishes his own tracks, as well as Robbie Rivera's.
He won the much coveted Muzik DJ of the year and consistently appears in the DJ Magazine 100 poll year after year since the poll's beginning in 1997 and BPM magazine readers in 2006 voted Paul 8th in America's most Favourite DJ poll.

Here are this week's World Top10 music single's charts; an attempt to average out chart positions (and through that also local sales) across all corners of the world, from Argentina, Chile and Brazil in the South West to Russia, Japan and South Korea in the North East, as well as from Canada, the US and Mexico in the North West to Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia in the South East, taking into account Eastern and Western Europe, Africa and anywhere inbetween.

Anna Mae Bullock, otherwise and much more widely known as Tina Turner, was born 26 Nov 1939 in Nutbush, Tennessee. Her parents soon moved to St. Louis, Missouri and left Anna behind at her grandmother's, after whom's death she joined her mum & dad.
Once in St. Louis, Anna attended Sumner High School. Around this time, her sister was taking her to several nightclubs in the city. At Club Imperial one night, Anna met Mississippi-born R&B musician Ike Turner and later asked him if she could sing for him. Ike was initially skeptical, but after much persistence he decided to let her perform for him, becoming an occasional vocalist in Ike's shows at the age of 18. Going by the name 'Little Ann', she was also the spotlight of a soul revue led by Ike Turner and his Kings of Rhythm band and, when a singer scheduled to record the song 'A Fool in Love' did not appear, Little Ann stepped in and recorded the vocals instead.
After joining Ike Turner's band as a background vocalist, Ike changed her name to Tina Turner and the pair married two years later in Tijunana, Mexico. Tina remained as a member of the duo until the mid-1970s, acquiring a series of major hits on the R&B chart, including 'Proud Mary' and 'Nutbush City Limits'.
Years of endured pain with her husband followed and, after leaving Ike Turner, she established a solo career, signing with United Artists Records, where she would release four studio albums: Tina Turns the Country On (1974), Acid Queen (1975), Rough (1978), and Love Explosion (1979). None of these releases were commercially successful, and she left the label at the end of the decade.
After collaborating with the British electronic group, B.E.F. in 1982, Tina signed a new contract with EMI records in the UK, and released the single 'Let's Stay Together' (a cover of the Al Green song) in late 1983, which charted and launched the immensely successful part of her solo career. By this time, Tina had begun work on a full album, Private Dancer, which was released in May 1984 and became a worldwide hit. It spawned a string of hit singles, including 'What's Love Got to Do with It', which still stands as her biggest ever hit. The success of the album established Turner as a major solo artist, elevating her to superstar status, and her comeback during this period is widely regarded as one of the most successful of all time.

Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was born 10 Oct 1813 in Le Roncole, a village near Busseto, in the then Duchy of Parma and Piacenza, Italy. The 'Verdi' in his surname he supposedly adapted in honour of Victor Emmanuel II, the first Italian King of a united Italy (V.E.R.D.I. - Victor Emmanuel, Re d'Italia), whom he was an admirer of, perhaps due to his birth place being annexed by French troops for most of his life and him witnessing the occupants kicked out and his Fatherland finally united under his reign.
Guiseppe was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera, and the most influential of the 19th century. Being an atheist, his work has at the time, sometimes been criticized for using a generally diatonic rather than a chromatic musical idiom and for being essentially melodrama during his early years.
Nabucco, which he wrote in 1842, is an opera in four acts, based on the Biblical story and the play by Auguste Anicet-Bourgeois & Francis Cornue, six years earlier. It was Guiseppe’s third opera and the one which is considered to have permanently established his reputation as a composer. The opera follows the plight of the Jews as they are assaulted, conquered, and subsequently exiled from their homeland by the Babylonian King Nabucco.

The historical events are used as background for a romantic and political plot. It was first performed on 9 Mar 1842 at La Scala in Milan under the original name of Nabucodonosor. It became Nabucco at a performance at the San Giacomo Theatre of Corfu, Greece, in Sep 1844. Guiseppe composed Nabucco at a difficult moment in his life: his wife and children had all just died, and contracted with La Scala. He felt that 'this is the opera with which my artistic career really begins'.
The Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves is a chorus from the third act, with words by Temistocle Solera, inspired by the bible Psalm 137.
Much like Germany's Richard Wagner, Guiseppe has often been seen as fuelling nationalism, a claim which was later refuted. True, both Mussolini and Hitler idolised the respective composers, but that occurred a long time after, and under much different circumstances - let alone one of the fellow dictators should have been more than dis-impressed by Guiseppe's works...

Here is a band which influenced my musical taste a great deal at the time of my relocation from Germany to England - The Shamen:

The Shamen were formed in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1985 by Colin Angus, Derek McKenzie, Keith McKenzie and Peter Stephenson. They changed line-ups many times and swapped a psychedelic indie sound for dance-rock, before settling for rave, which would lead to fame.
Between 1987 and 1991, they released two albums, which may have made little impact on the charts but served notice of their growing importance within the exploding acid house scene.

Four years later centred on the core duo of Angus and Will Sinnott, 'Jesus Loves America' and 'In Gorbachev We Trust' caused controversy while making a name for themselves. In 1990, the band's third album 'En-Tact' saw the arrival of rapper Richard West, a.k.a. Mr. C., but also marked by the tragic departure of Will, who drowned while filming the video to 'Move Any Mountain' in Tenerife. The band decided to continue without him and the single became The Shamen's biggest hit.
The band were on the cusp of big success and so it proved with the 1992 release of the 'Boss Drum' and controversial 'Ebeneezer Goode'. The track quickly came under fire for its glorification of club culture and the drug Ecstasy, not helped by their Top Of The Pops performance, which concluded with Mr. C asking: 'Has anyone got any underlay'?
'Boss Drum' went 2x Platinum and spawned 'L.S.I. (Love Sex Intelligence), 'Phorever People'. But there were already suggestions that their sound was becoming diluted. Two more albums explored less commercial, instrumental territories, but as relations with their record label crumbled and their musical mission accomplished, they called it a day.

I am very pleased to recommend Lorenzo. 'Obsesion' is a hymn for all Ibiza's lovers, in the Balearic spirit, with its 2 Step Ahead Guitar who will invite you to have a drink in front of a sunset opposite Es Vedra or one of the terraces overlooking the old town before leaving for the huge clubs of the island and dance all night long !
Obsesion is available in 2 versions - The Las Tardes Ibiza Club Mix and The Valerian d'Aix Lounge Mix: Lorenzo - Obsesión (2011)

Video Video are a new Electro Pop duo hailing from Melbourne, Australia. Byron St. John & Matt Thomas, a.k.a. Doll, also part of band The Blow Waves, embarked on a side project, which has so far released two tracks:

Panic on the streets of London
Panic on the streets of Birmingham
I wonder to myself
Could life ever be sane again
on the Leeds side-streets that you slip down
I wonder to myself
Hopes may rise on the Grasmeres
But Honey Pie, you're not safe here
So you run down
To the safety of the town
But there's Panic on the streets of Carlisle
Dublin, Dundee, Humberside
I wonder to myself

Burn down the Disco
Hang the blessed DJ
Because the music that they constantly play
It says nothing to me about my life
Hang the blessed DJ
Because the music they constantly play
On the Leeds side-streets that you slip down
On the provincial towns that you jog 'round

Hang the D.J.,. Hang the D.J.,.Hang the D.J..
Hang the D.J., Hang the D.J., Hang the D.J..

When we grew up and went to school, there were certain teachers who would hurt the children anyway they could
by pouring their derision upon anything we did
exposing every weakness however carefully hidden by the kids.

But in the town it was well known that when they got home at night
their fat and psychopathic wives
Would thrash them within inches of their lives!

We don't need no education
We don’t need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave them kids alone
Hey! Teacher! Leave them kids alone!
All in all it's just another brick in the wall.
All in all you're just another brick in the wall.

We don't need no education
We don’t need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave them kids alone
Hey! Teacher! Leave us kids alone!
All in all it's just another brick in the wall.
All in all you're just another brick in the wall.

Wrong, Guess again!
Wrong, Guess again!
If you don't eat yer meat, you can't have any pudding.
How can you have any pudding if you don't eat yer meat?
You! Yes, you behind the bikesheds, stand still laddie!"

The Bulls are already out there
Pink: "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrgh!"
"This Roman Meal bakery thought you'd like to know."

I don't need no arms around me
And I dont need no drugs to calm me.
I have seen the writing on the wall.
Don't think I need anything at all.
No! Don't think I'll need anything at all.
All in all it was all just bricks in the wall.
All in all you were all just bricks in the wall.

The founding members of the Army Of Lovers, Alexander Bard, Jean-Pierre Barda and Camilla Henemark, a.k.a. La Camilla, hail from Stockholm, Sweden. The name of the band alludes to a documentary 'Armee der Liebenden oder Revolte der Perversen' about the German gay rights activist Rosa von Praunheim, the title of which in turn alludes to the Theban Band. During their time together, Army Of Lovers became famous for their outlandish visual appearance, many of their costumes were created by Camilla Thulin, and their high camp music videos directed by Fredrik Boklund, of which some of which were banned even by MTV.

Helen Marnie, Mira Aroyo, Daniel Hunt and Reuben Wu are Ladytron. Their name was taken from the song of the same name by Roxy Music. Daniel and Reuben met in the mid-90s as DJs on the Scouse (Liverpudlian, for all non-Brits) scene. A few years later, in 1999, both met Scottish Helen and Bulgarian Mira and together they since have gone from strength to strength: their first album '604' received critical acclaim, with the single release 'Playgirl' bringing them also international recognition. My favourite track by them, 'Destroy Everything You Touch' was released in 2005 as part of the album 'Watching Hour'. Two years later the song was re-released and reached UK#42.

Here are three of my favourite tracks by Richard Melville Hall, a.k.a. Moby, born 11 Sep 1965 in Harlem, NYC:

His middle name, and subsequently his nickname Moby were given to him by his parents because of an ancestral relationship to Moby Dick author Herman Melville; with supposedly Herman Melville being his great-great-great-granduncle. Moby started playing music when he was nine years old, originally learning classical guitar and music theory, then piano and drums.
From 1982 to 1985 he played in a hardcore punk band called the Vatican Commandos, who released an EP called Hit Squad for God. He also played in a Joy Division-inspired post-punk group called AWOL, who released an album in 1983. About five years later he played briefly with Ultra Vivid Scene. But it was his second solo single 'Go' that brought his breakthrough in 1991, being featured in US TV series Twin Peaks.
Worldwide, Moby has sold over 20 million albums. He has also co-written, produced or remixed music for Smashing Pumpkins, Michael Jackson, David Bowie, Brian Eno, Pet Shop Boys, Britney Spears, New Order, Public Enemy, Guns 'N' Roses, Metallica and more.

DJ Jon Marc and Dave Aarons from Bedford, England, were Kool World Productions. Not too much is known of them, except perhaps that they must be huge Star Wars fans, because in 1995 they released a track, which should enter the Hall of Fame of dance music.
The vocal sample on the track , 'In->Vader' is taken from James Earl Jones in the film 'Return of the Jedi'...

Brian Dougans & Garry Cobain, a.k.a. The Future Sound of London, are actually hailing from Manchester. Their very influential discography shows off influences spanning acid house, hardcore techno, ambient, krautrock, 60's psychedelica, and more. Previously Brian, under the name of Humanoid, had a UK#10 hit with 'Stakker Humanoid'. Together as FSOL, they scored a major crossover success with 'Papua New Guinea'. Their first full-length Accelerator charted their dancefloor-friendly early career, after which FSOL moved into deeper, more album-oriented word. Lifeforms was a double-disc set with long stretches of breakbeat-flavored ambience and contain my favourite track by them, Cascade. It was followed by Dead Cities which added hip-hop, trip-hop, industrial textures, and bleak urban imagery into their mix of influences. Their ISDN album compiled music from their ISDN-uplinked radio broadcasts from the mid-1990's. After Dead Cities came out in 1996, they dropped off the radar. After a long pause in which they were surrounded by rumors of insanity and drug addiction, the 'Papua New Guinea Translations' concept remix album came out, followed by the full-length The Isness and more material under the Amorphous Androgynous name.

One of the most famous production outfits of the mid-1990's progressive house scene are Charlie May & Duncan Forbes, a.k.a. Spooky. Most famous for their anthem 'Little Bullet' and their debut LP 'Gargantuan', my favourite track of is 'Schmoo'. Their output covers a broad range from techno to breakbeat,
to straight-up acid and trance. In 2002, they returned from a several-years hiatus with the single 'Belong', and Charlie May continues to do his own solo productions through today.

The Orb are an English electronic music group known for popularising chill out music in the 1990s and spawning the genre of ambient house. Founded in 1988 by Alex Paterson and KLF member Jimmy Cauty, The Orb began as ambient and dub DJs in London. Their early performances were inspired by ambient and electronic artists of the 1970s and 1980s, most notably Brian Eno and Kraftwerk. Because of their "trippy" sound, The Orb developed a cult following among clubbers "coming down" from drug-induced highs.The Orb has maintained their drug-related and science fiction themes despite personnel changes including the departure of Cauty and other Orb members Kris Weston, Simon Phillips, and Andy Hughes. Paterson has been the only permanent member, continuing to work as The Orb with the Swiss-German producer Thomas Fehlmann and later with Martin Glover and Tim Bran of Dreadzone.

They went on for ever and they when I we lived in Arizona and the skies
always had little fluffy clouds and err.. they were long and clear and there
were lots of stars, at night.
And errr when it rain it would all turn, it, they were beautiful, the most
beautiful skies as a matter of fact, the sunsets were purple and red and
yellow and on fire and the clouds would catch the colours everywhere,
thats, its neat because I used to look at them all the time when i was
little. You don't see that.

Layering different sounds on top of each other
Layering different sounds on top of each other

What were skies like when you were young?
They went on for ever and they when I we lived in Arizona and the skies
always had little fluffy clouds and err.. they were long and clear and there
were lots of stars, at night.
And errr when it rain it would all turn, it, they were beautiful, the most
beautiful skies as a matter of fact, errr the sunsets were the sunsets were
purple and red and yellow and on fire and the clouds would catch the
colours everywhere, thats, its neat because I used to look at them all the
time when i was little. You don't see that.
little fluffy clouds and little fluffy clouds and
lililililililililililililililililililililili little fuffy clouds and little
fluffy clouds and lililililililililililililililililililili
when I we lived in Arizona and the skies always had little fluffy clouds and
err.. they were long and clear and there were lots of stars, at night.
And errr when it rain it would all turn, it, they were beautiful, the most
beautiful skies as a matter of fact the sunsets were the sunsets were purple
and red and yellow and were on fire and the clouds would catch the colours
everywhere, thats, its neat because I used to look at them all the time when
i was little. You don't see that, you might still see them in the desert.

Full Intention duo Michael Gray & Jon Pearn need no introduction: spreading their dominating sound across the house music scene for the last ten years, the pair have secured a seemingly non-stop string of Top 40 releases and remixes. They debuted under their own name in 1995 with their cover of the Patrick Juvet disco track '(I Love) America'.
Working with the biggest names in the industry and receiving a prestigious Grammy nomination in 2005 the duo followed their work with artists such as Jamiroquai, George Michael, Whitney Houston, Barbara Tucker, Junior Jack, Brandy, Ultra Nate and Jennifer Lopez.
Both have achieved solo success with Michael releasing singles 'The Weekend' and 'Borderline' which were hits on both the charts and in the clubs, while Jon has formed a side project Bodyrox.